Boxing’s greatest second acts

Ray Robinson’s whole comeback while past his best days winning the title back in 1955 and plenty of other plaudits including sending Fullmer into the shadow realm
Benny Leonard came back at 35 from a 7 year retirement and won 20 something fights before losing to Jimmy McLarnin.Dont know how to rate his opponents though
Maske came back after 11 years to beat his conqueror Hill
Tony Ayala jr came back after 17 years(most behind bars) to beat some journeyman before losing to Yori Boy
Ike Ibeabuchi is gonna try the most ridicolous one het starting next month.
51,coming back after 25 years(most in prison) with no team behind him.

 

Muhammad Ali of course. Coming back after having his title and license taken from him after a three and a half year lay off and regaining the world title and beating the likes of Frazier,Foreman,Norton etc.

 

Natural BW Eder Jofre going 25-0 up at FW between the ages of 34 and 40, following more than 3-years out of the ring following his initial retirement.

BW to FW is a hell of a jump and Eder's wins during this run included ATG FW Vicente Saldivar and the excellent FW titlest Jose Legra who was 128-9-4 going into the fight.

 

Saldivar came out of retirement to blitz youngsters like Legrà and Fammo.
Roberto Duràn's entire post no mas career was a rollercoaster,but a good comeback regardless,he could still held his chin up at 40 even,going competitive with Vinny Paz and Hector Camacho.

 

Zack Padilla was 7-1-1, retired for 5+ years, and went 15-0 in his comeback, picking up a WBO strap and a few defenses along the way. He easily had better results the second time around...

 

Kevin Finnegan went on an amazing run when his career looked dead and buried, pulling off a shock win over Tony Sibson for the British middleweight title and a shock win over Gratien Tonna for the European middleweight title.

 

Vitali’s comeback was amazing.

 

Marvin Johnson: I don't think anyone would have blamed him if he'd faded away after the loss to Spinks, given the wars he'd been through. Instead he kept plugging, beat some good fighters along the way like Eddie Davis and Charles Williams, and finally got another title shot some five years later. He won his third world title and finally got to make a successful defense.

Hilario Zapata: The story goes that he got arrested for fighting his mother just before losing his rematch to Jung-koo Chang in three rounds. He followed that up by blowing up to bantamweight and putting in a laughable performance against Harold Petty in which he looked like a totally lost fighter. He got himself back into world title contention the next year at flyweight, lost a tough decision against the excellent Santos Laciar, and then won his third world title the year after that and defended it five times.

Nana Yaw Konadu: After a quick TKO loss in a rematch with Sung-kil Moon, he spent about five years fighting pretty mediocre opponents (Victor Rabanales and maybe Juan Polo Perez aside) before he finally got another world title shot. He got off the deck to knock out Veeraphol Sahaprom, lost in his first defense, won the title back for championship #3, and then (like Johnson) finally made his first successful defense, over eight years after first becoming a world champ.

 

Carlos Zarate - retired in '79 and came back in what seemed like a lark almost 7 years later at an advanced age in a benefit show along with other retired greats. But he decided to hang around and won 12 straight culminating in 2 shots at the world title. They were both unsuccessful but it was one helluva go.

Johnny Tapia - retired for reasons now that I forget, but came back about 4 years later and won multiple world titles. Amazing career.

 

Archie Moore's career is basically 1 giant 2nd act after it was initially derailed & seemingly ended by stomach ulcers/surgery.

Willie Pep defied the odds & doctors' expectations by resuming his career after being seriously injured in a plane crash.

James Toney winning the CW title & establishing himself as a legit HW contender after his career seemingly fizzled out post-RJ.

Lupe Pintor reemerged from career limbo to upset Kid Meza & win a 2nd title up @122.

After seeming like a flash in the pan down @112, Fighting Harada reemerged w/ a huge upset of Jofre to win the BW title.

Dick Tiger found a new lease on life @175 after losing the MW title.

Mayweather returned from a "retirement" that no1 ever took seriously & scored some of the most high profile wins of his career.

Pacquiao's post-Horn comeback streak that culminated w/ his win over Thurman.

McCallum winning a 3rd title all the way up @175.

 

Tyson Fury regaining the world title after ballooning up to 28+ stone and abusing his body on the Colombian marching powder

 

Wlad